"I have been enamored with iTunes U for some time. When the app-ortunity presented itself to publish my own course, I jumped on it. As Yolanda and I had reunited to present at TCEA 2013, the “student-created books” workshop we had proposed last year for the event fit perfectly as an iTunes U course. At the time we wanted to showcase apps that created books on the iPad rather than simply iBooks Author, as not all classrooms and teachers had access to a Mac. Thus, we reunited to collaborate and create “Student Created Books in the iClassroom”." https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/student-created-books-in-iclassroom/id600182444

This past year was swamped with curriculum design for four new Makerspace courses. Though there are many aspects in each of the courses that need to be tweaked, some of our projects were immediately and massively successful. For a GCAA Makerspace project to be successful, it should engage students while furthering their understanding of design thinking.

In the spirit of my guiding star for 2015-2016 being #documentation, here are my top ten curricular wins from 2014-2015.

I fell in love with Periscope, the free live-streaming app created by Twitter, this summer while at ISTE. Free, instant access to events happening around the world – finally! The myriad of ways I could see implementing it in my classroom overwhelmed me in a good way. Kids could periscope our class at any time to bring the world in. Students could interact with other students around the world. Students could have a real-time audience at any time we needed. We could explore every day moments in cultures around the world. On and on, the ideas went.

Yet, when I thought about it some more, I started to second-guess my love for it a little bit. I didn’t fall out of love, but I did start to question my own ideas, as well as the professional responsibility that I carry not just as a teacher, but also as an active conference goer/speaker. So what has made me slow down?

The Maker Movement, a technological and creative learning revolution underway around the globe, has exciting and vast implications for the world of education. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, “smart” materials, and programming languages are being invented at an unprecedented pace. The Maker Movement creates affordable or even free versions of these inventions, while sharing tools and ideas online to create a vibrant, collaborative community of global problem-solvers.

Since 2007, a diverse group of Pittsburgh’s educators, funders, academics, and citizens—known as the Remake Learning Network—has emerged to exchange ideas and implement strategies to enhance the region’s learning ecosystem. These efforts have provided the region’s children and youth with novel, engaging, and relevant learning opportunities that help them thrive in school, college, and the workforce. Indeed, what began with small, informal discussions has blossomed into a full-fledged movement that is yielding notable results and earning national recognition.

In the spirit of open innovation, the Network is building the Remake Learning Playbook, a field guide full of ideas and resources for supporting learning innovation networks. Filled with practical and actionable information to help other communities build on the Pittsburgh model for learning innovation.

Why do we teach? For me personally, it is the moment my students come up with original ideas, innovations, inventions. Simply put, a different way of thinking. How can we utilise technology to foster diverse, creative thinking?

We are living in an age of advanced user-driven technologies, information abundance, and networked, participatory learning. It should logically follow, then, that education should take advantage of these amazing developments. As many of us in education know, it has not. This theme has permeated many of my blog posts:

As a science teacher, this is the best project I do all year. I have yet to come across a project where students are more engaged. They want to come after school to work on it, they ask to take the project home to work over the weekend, students are shocked when the class period has come to an end, and they all want to skip their next class to continue working.

The purpose of this project is to reinforce Newton's Laws of Motion through roller coaster physics. The objective is to have a marble take the GREATEST amount of time to get from the top of the first hill to where the coaster ends.

This instructable has also been submitted into the paper contest. I know the competition is fierce so please vote for me!

Why teach kids to code? Coding is what makes computer software work. Understanding the basics of programming will help your child be prepared for the jobs of the future. And, in the process your child will be using logic, solving problems, and having fun! Check out these apps and try coding yourself. Then try it with your students. We are living in creative, exciting times – be part of it!! :)

Augmented Reality is the term used by apps which overlay content on top of real world objects. Imagine viewing a textbook page through your iPad and the pictures come to life with sound and animations. This can have some great educational uses. From bringing spacecraft or animals into the classroom, to bringing worksheets to life with interactive 3D models. The tech is still in its infancy. At the moment you still need to view things through some kind of device – a tablet, phone or webcam. Can you imagine what this would be like when viewed through something like Google Glass? But that’s something for the future. There’s many different apps out there, but here are a few of my favourites that could be used to teach Science.

Special projects require special highlights, and those can only come from special creativity tools. Use these with your students to add unique creative flair to projects of all kids!

It’s always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they’re never tried before, with a tool they may not have used. Discovering how to use such a resource—and what you can create with it—is very rewarding. The creativity tools we have listed here are great little online resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways.

Using these creativity tools, students can add artistic personal touches to their work in so many ways. They can build fonts; make themselves into a robot or a Picasso painting; draw with fire; and turn pictures into words and textures, to name a few things. These are fun tools to explore and engage your students with, so everyone can have fun!"

"There is a shortage of people who know how to program. These are high quality, high paying jobs. How do we encourage students to learn how to code? Learning to programming not only is a skill that is in high demand, it is also incredibly useful. We have all wished we had an app or a program that would do a particular thing that is specific to ourselves. I know some HTML and some JavaScript and Google Apps Script and it is amazing what you can do with just a little knowledge"

I am in a privileged position as I teach students in an iPad 1:1 school, so have always been able to teach coding using our iPads. However I know there are a wealth of fantastic computerless coding lessons and wanted to explore these, to see if students would gain a better understanding of coding!

From June 22 – July 24, I led technology projects at Marymount’s Summer STEAM Camp in the awesome FabLab Makerspace at their 5th Avenue campus. It was quite an experience to gather, develop, and run projects for campers with varying skill sets in grades K-5 for five weeks. Also, each grade level had a different and unique theme almost every week, and I challenged myself to plan integrated projects that correlated with their themes.

Explore STEM education in settings beyond the classroom walls, and see how opportunities to learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are all around us. From science-based internships, to student-run makerspaces, to after-school activities, STEM is everywhere.

The videos in this series were produced by Mobile Digital Arts, and were made possible through generous support from the Noyce Foundation.

One of the challenges of teaching history is that it doesn’t change much. While there may be a discovery here and there, it is rare that any sort of drastic discovery might alter the learning experience of a student in history class. Thanks to various technology innovations like the internet and computing technology, this challenge can also be turned into history. That is if as an educator we are willing to be open to the possibility that we are not the all knowing fountain of knowledge, and that our 20-year old textbook might need an upgrade? But who can afford textbooks?!!?

Worry not! We have a classroom of historical researchers and thinkers and the tools to empower them to create their own history book.

Several summers ago, I wrote 10 Ideas for Creating Literacy Centers in response to a request from a Summer Workshop participant. Over the past few weeks, this post has been re-circulated on Social Media, so I decided that it needed an update.

My original post was inspired by Suzy Brooks’ use of her SMART Board as a learning center. For this update, I would like to credit the fantastic work of Kristen Wideen and Meghan Zigmond. While many of the concepts from the original post are certainly still applicable, here are 10 new ideas for creating learning centers.

I’ve always been obsessed with all things creative. I’ve always assumed I was just a Sharpie collecting, cardboard building, Lego designing girl who never grew up. What was this relentless urge to create? It’s really been about being a maker, all along. The Maker Movement is making it’s way into education and these are my favorite resources. Join the conversation about making on Twitter by adding the hashtag #MakerEd, or the new hashtag just for resources for youngest learners, #Elemaker. You can also add your name to a growing list of educators looking to collaborate!

So what is making? I’ve proposed that the heart of making is creating new and unique things. I also realize that in order for this type of making to occur, there needs to be some scaffolding so that maker learners can develop a foundation of knowledge and skills. The end result, though should be maker learners creating new things by and for themselves. The ideas in this post have been sparked by the SAMR model. I see a similar pattern or progression with maker education:

Differentiated instruction is not necessarily a new approach to meeting the unique learning needs of all students, but it has certainly been enhanced through assistive technologies. The advancements with assistive technologies have been astronomical in providing teachers even more ways to reach out to their students (Dove, 2012) and differentiate the way they learn, practice, and explore concepts (Ciampa & Gallagher, 2013).

As a researcher studying assistive technologies and a program facilitator for the Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region, I have gained valuable insight to help support educators with high-tech assistive technologies. For the most part, my experience with assistive technology has generally revolved around using Apple iPads and Chromebooks. With this in mind, the following tips will be coming from the perspective of a teacher very passionate about mobile devices in 21st century learning spaces.

I spent more than 5 years in public school classrooms, both urban and suburban, and while I saw a lot of educators working their behinds off and engaging kids in valuable, essential learning, I also saw a lot of kids that were disenchanted by what school had to offer. After years in the public school system, many of the students that need school the worst had been taught one irrevocable truth: learning was not for them. And not just because school was too hard or too easy, but because it was often at odds with their interests and desires.

And then, in just the past few months, I’ve had my eyes opened to the world of schooling that happens beyond the walls of the traditional brick and mortar education. Suddenly, I saw living rooms, parks, co-ops, libraries, churches, and community centers as steady, stimulating learning environments. I saw parents confidently addressing the educational needs of their children without necessarily having the formal training to do so (my good friend, Becky, is among them). I saw how certain learning methods and perspectives could yield the type of student that regularly scores above the national average on an array of standardized tests and feels empowered as a lifelong learner. But what exactly were these families able to do that was so different? And what could we as public educators borrow from these homeschool classrooms–or any non-traditional or informal learning environment–that would be of benefit in our own? Here are the five things that stand out.

Visual Reading is a great reading app for kids having difficulty reading with just words and also for those suffering from autism and dyslexia. As a teacher or parent, you can create storyboards and use your won videos and images to associate with words. Your kid can then read the story either through words or with the help of the visual cues you provided.

n his TEDxUNC 2015 talk, Chase Lewis, a 15-year-old inventor, talks about taking any tools around us — any inspiration that we can ﬁnd — to stop waiting, to take action and to do something. Chase uses his personal experience doing just that for the past several years, and conveys that we ALL can do it.

Summer is a great time to play–but not just for kids! If you’re a teacher on vacation, the months of July and August are a golden opportunity to explore new apps and tools that you don’t have time to test during the busy school year. Devoting a few rainy afternoons to “teacher play” can pay off big in the fall: you can update your curricula or even develop new activities and assessments, and you can also test-drive apps to determine which ones would work well for your students to use.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.